Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Vol. 3? (1 Viewer)

[Traveling Matt]

It sounds like the situation needs to change.

 

[Adam_S]

There are repeats because that's stock ready to go and there is no real money for the restorations any longer. Except for the post-'48 cartoons on the first Golden Collection and the Tweety and Road Runner cartoons on Vol. 2, all of the WB cartoons on those sets were remastered in HD.

So as a result, there's only about 9 or 10 cartoons per Blu-Ray set that weren't on the DVD sets. Having the cartoons they already have in HD isn't enticing enough for a lot of the long-time collectors, so it's a lose-lose situation.

So the Road Runner cartoons on disc 2 of volume 2 of the golden collection were mastered in HD?

And the cartoons post 1948 on all of Volume 1 of the golden collection were mastered in HD?

But none of the other cartoons on any of the six volumes were mastered in HD? How were they mastered? New telecines to Digibeta? Or were new telecines not used at all?

I bought all six of the GCs, but I never got through more than the first four volumes, I think, I may not have finished Volume 4, even. Some of the cartoons from the thirties (all the ones involving the 'books' were especially dire, as I recall) were pretty awful. Overall I don't have a problem with how they presented the cartoons, but I wish the discs had been chronological, even if they were scattershot in terms of characters and directors.

Is it weird that I thought McKimson might be the third best LT director behind #1 Freleng and #2 Jones?

 

[ThadK]

So the Road Runner cartoons on disc 2 of volume 2 of the golden collection were mastered in HD?

And the cartoons post 1948 on all of Volume 1 of the golden collection were mastered in HD?

But none of the other cartoons on any of the six volumes were mastered in HD? How were they mastered? New telecines to Digibeta? Or were new telecines not used at all?

You completely misread what I wrote. It's the exact opposite.

 

[bugsy-pal]

Is it weird that I thought McKimson might be the third best LT director behind #1 Freleng and #2 Jones?

I can't answer all your other questions - but I rate McKimson very highly, especially his 40s work. I would put him ahead of Freleng, but behind Jones (and for Jones, I'm only considering his 40s and early 50s work). But above them all, I'd put Bob Clampett - maybe that's sacrilegious, and he had a relatively short stint at Warners - but he took the Looney Tunes in a whole different direction.

I think it was the Golder Collection 5 that had a whole disc of Clampett cartoons - pure joy.

 

[MattPriceTime]

I've always liked Looney Tunes but the whole changing on lines made me still to this day not really decided which to buy or not to buy. However i bet the method underneath all this is not unlike the other WHV animation strategies. I bet you'd find while a lot of these sets often add new things being released, if you listed out what could be the potential season sets or year sets that they'd be leaving something off each of to make sure if they ever DID release them the collector would still have to buy them even if they have bought every other collection thus far.

Of course this strategy is a solid way to increase money long term, but it could be for another reason (as other WB properties might be as well) Is there something in the Looney Tunes section of the library with some kind of hefty bill to be paid?

NOTE: Also on a funny note as i typed this the question on Jeopardy just mentioned Yosemite Sam lol.

 

[Ken_Martinez]

Not helping are all of the standard-def double dips (Essential, Center Stage, Looney Tunes Unleashed, ad infinitum) that Warner has and is glutting the market with.

Of course the Platinum Collections didn't sell. Warner STUPIDLY expected buyers to choose a 40-dollar Blu-Ray set amid the tsunami of 10 dollar (and less) DVD compliations with the exact same content. And that's if you were lucky and your local big box even stocked the Blu-Ray set (none of mind did).

If Warner Archive ends up getting the reins to the not-on-DVD shorts, that would probably be for the best.

 

[bigshot]

The difference in image quality between the DVDs and the blu-rays is massive on a good system with a large screen. But if Warner wants to sell cartoons, they need to learn who their audience is... regular people. Regular people want a wide variety of cartoons at a very low sell through price. They don't want to pay extra for fancy packaging, multi-disk sets or lots of supplements. If Warner rotated the entire library through limited release low price collections aimed at the sell through market, they could keep selling cartoons till the cows come home. If they cater to the cartoon nerds who check names off a list, they will sell fewer and fewer with every release.

 

[Ken_Martinez]

At this point, I think the best thing for Looney Tunes would be an "a la carte" download system. Like iTunes, but better. Let people buy cartoons individually, and everyone can build a collection to their liking.

One of the major problems is that WB only remasters cartoons with home video in mind. Do they expect never to run Looney Tunes on television ever again? In this HD world, do they expect ancient analog tape copies to cut it forever?

 

[bigshot]

Warner has been systematically doing HD transfers of their features for Warner Archive Streaming. There's a lot of stuff there that isn't available elsewhere in HD. I bet they have their eye on creating their own streaming service, not just for old movies.

 

[Traveling Matt]

The difference in image quality between the DVDs and the blu-rays is massive on a good system with a large screen. But if Warner wants to sell cartoons, they need to learn who their audience is... regular people. Regular people want a wide variety of cartoons at a very low sell through price. They don't want to pay extra for fancy packaging, multi-disk sets or lots of supplements. If Warner rotated the entire library through limited release low price collections aimed at the sell through market, they could keep selling cartoons till the cows come home. If they cater to the cartoon nerds who check names off a list, they will sell fewer and fewer with every release.

Regular people have soundly proven that the Looney Tunes don't sell as general consumer retail releases anymore (at least not in any sustainable sense). Of what benefit do you think it would be for Warner to release the entire library - about 1,000 cartoons - in small doses for them now? How would managing such a massive library as a sell-through series provide any real direction for either party? How would restoration factor into such an effort?

 

[phillyrobt]

I read somewhere WB makes $1 billion a year in licensing fees from Looney Tunes http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/movies/20looney.html?_r=0
everything should be released to offset the bad karma from the unfunny show Friends

 

[bigshot]

Regular people have soundly proven that the Looney Tunes don't sell as general consumer retail releases anymore (at least not in any sustainable sense).

When you sell them in three disk sets for $35 and up, yes. If they cycled the library through single disk collections priced from $7.99 to $9.99 suggested retail, they would sell a lot of them. All they need to do is to order one pressing run of each title and then move on to a new collection with a new batch of cartoons. Both collectors and regular people would buy them. Now only collectors are interested, and that market is minuscule compared to the average mom at Target or Walmart crowd.

 

[bigshot]

I'm sure the studio is engaged in a systematic sweep through doing hidef transfers of their libraries. Just start a steady stream of quick and dirty releases and continue until your library is all digitized. Then create a subscription or advertising based streaming service with an ocean of content. Don't spend a lot on restoration or extras. Just transfer films. Plenty of time to do digital restoration later if you want.

 

[Traveling Matt]

You seem to be criticizing the Platinums, which really aren't for collectors or regular people (general consumers). They're for home theater enthusiasts and those looking for a few Blu-rays of the best Looney Tunes.

General consumers have had their pick of endless low-priced series – the Spotlights, the Super Stars, "Best-ofs" – over the years at the $10 price point. Again, none of those have been sustainable. There's little reason to believe what you suggest would be any different and even less reason to believe collectors would be interested. Especially if done as limited editions (which don't mean anything to general consumers) and with no restoration (which doesn't work for collectors).

There doesn't seem to be much point in investing in what you describe. And that's part of the problem: there's no eye looking towards "investment." As I see it, WHV can either continue $10 retail releases for general consumers or they can license out the series to someone who WILL invest in finishing the catalog and release it to collectors via mail order. And then have the films in HD to release on all alternate or future platforms, and continue to make money on the job forever.

 

[bigshot]

Taking transfers that they are already doing and just slapping them on low cost disks isn't much of an investment. It certainly would be an easier sell than a box set with tons of restoration work and supplements and a high price tag to support all that.

Good luck getting Warners to license out the Looney Tunes to an outside company. Good luck finding a company who wants to license them to do huge collections that are sold through by mail on a subscription basis.

 

[Ken_Martinez]

That's the thing. They've STOPPED doing transfer work on the Looney Tunes entirely. The only things coming out are transfers already done slapped onto low-cost discs, and that's the problem.

Even if physical media is stone-cold dead and streaming is the future, most of the cartoons not on DVD haven't been remastered since the 1980's. Are those feeble, prehistoric VHS copies the ones that Warner intends to use from here on out? Or do they not intend to stream Looney Tunes at all?

 

[Adam_S]

Have they really stopped doing transfers of Looney Tunes? that makes no sense, I would naturally expect that their asset protection management program would have them rolling out ten or twenty a month, since the same asset managers manage to get through half a dozen features and a season or two of old television every week.

I would think the transfers are being made, even if they're not being made available?

 

[bigshot]

All of the studios are doing hidef transfers to vault until they want to do something with them. I'm sure the Looney Tunes are going through in batches along with everything else.

Warner Archive is releasing DVDs of films they have hidef transfers of. The hidef is only available on WA Streaming. I'm sure everything they do is hidef now.

 

[Traveling Matt]

Taking transfers that they are already doing and just slapping them on low cost disks isn't much of an investment. It certainly would be an easier sell than a box set with tons of restoration work and supplements and a high price tag to support all that.

Good luck getting Warners to license out the Looney Tunes to an outside company. Good luck finding a company who wants to license them to do huge collections that are sold through by mail on a subscription basis.

Yes, but the Looney Tunes aren't really selling at all in retail. That's just the problem. Even a minimal effort takes time, energy and money - three things WHV doesn't seem interested in dealing with. And to what end? To maybe (only maybe) see the catalog released bit by bit with questionable nomenclature and no restoration?

What they can do is deal with an outside company who will take the time and care to restore the remaining 500 or 600 films and sell them direct (no subscription necessary). Timelife does it continuously with giant sets like Get Smart, China Beach and now The Wonder Years; the LTs would be a huge coup for them, Shout, Olive or anyone who does this kind of work. Warner would be wise to get on that train immediately while it's still steaming ahead - and leaving traditional retail in the dust.

 

[bigshot]

You don't understand the hubris of Warner Home Video.